


The Sanguine Blade

by gelema



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Dragons, F/M, Humanstuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-08
Updated: 2015-06-08
Packaged: 2018-04-03 10:31:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4097656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gelema/pseuds/gelema
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jade and Karkat in an AU with dragons. What more is needed?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Sanguine Blade

**Author's Note:**

> This was made with inspiration from listening to A Thousand Years by Christina Perri, so I encourage you to listen to it while reading! Or don't, if you prefer not to.  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9ayN39xmsI

Crimson. The sky and houses lining the street and people running out of buildings were all crimson with fire. The creator of this masterpiece - the ravager of the village - was a dragon, a deathly beautiful creature that fascinated Karkat. It flew overhead on its gossamer golden wings and then retreated back toward its home in the mountain. Karkat thought the fire looked like a raging swell of emotions: an artistic masterpiece. But the truth was that it was destroying everything he held dear. His amazement dissipated as suddenly as it had transfixed him, and he continued to haul his mixing bowl full of water into the town. He splashed the water all over a bright flame that had begun to lick at the bottom of his neighbor's wooden house, and the flames were drowned immediately. With the troupe of village people coming from the stream after him, hoisting water in any vessel they could get their hands on, they should be able to save a number of houses from the sudden attack. Unfortunately, the house beside this one was in much worse shape. It wouldn't last another ten minutes, and anyone inside had already been smoked out.

Karkat leaned down as he ground the last of the embers out with the ball of his shoe when suddenly a crash from the violently burning house caught his attention. A shoulder smashed its way through the burning door, and two figures emerged, one hanging off of the side of the other. As the sparks and smoke flew away into the sky, Karkat stared up at the stunning image of his two classmates: John, a dorky kid who had befriended him ages ago, was coughing up smoke and carrying his soot-filled glasses in his hand, and clinging to his sister, Jade, with the other hand. Jade's long skirt and hair miraculously had not caught on fire while she was inside, presumably saving John from burning on his bed.

This house was where they had grown up with their father and grandfather. When the two were babies - Karkat had heard the story many times, as it was one of the most exciting stories of the village - they were found on the mountainside alone, hugging so tightly to one another in the cold night that they seemed to be a single object lying on the ground. They were brought back, and immediately adopted by a travelling merchant from the city and his father, who then decided to settle here in the town with their new children. No one knew who was the older child, although they suspected it was Jade because she always remained a few inches taller than John. They had lived here happily as members of the village for ten years until the last great fire that took their lives. Their children survived the fire, though, and the town had collectively raised the children for the past seven years. John and Jade had moved back into their old house just a few months ago before the dragon decided to rain down fire again today.

While John continued to clear his throat of smoke, Jade looked up into the sky, her eyes following the disappearing body of the dragon. There was rage in her clear, green eyes, and Karkat felt uncomfortable, as though he was spying on a secret of hers, but he couldn't make himself look away. However beautiful he had thought the burning fire was before now was nothing in comparison to the breathtaking fury in Jade's expression. Her green eyes gleamed toward the dragon with a coldness more deadly than any fire Karkat had ever seen. Karkat felt sure that if the dragon had stayed around another few minutes, Jade would have walked right up to it and started thrashing at it with her bare fists. The sparks and smoke curled around her head, and the evidence of her wrath was suddenly gone when she was forced to lean down and cough.

Karkat had shifted his weight to move toward the two and help support John when a small huddle of people blew right past him and offered themselves to the siblings first. The older kids of the village immediately shuffled John toward the nurse's cottage and gave him drinks of water from the vessels they had brought, and the others surrounded Jade and thanked her for saving John. Jade's closest friend, Dave, kept asking her if she was alright, and she consistently told him that she didn't get hurt or breathe any smoke. He gave her a huge hug and wrapped his arms around her. Karkat turned away to go back and get more water for the other still-burning houses. While he was turned, he heard Jade cough again. Dave demanded Jade go to see the nurse as well, and she agreed. Her voice sounded clearer to Karkat, as if she was facing him instead of her friends. Had she looked back at him, standing here alone? He ignored the thought and jogged past the fast-footed adults with water to rush more water onto the house fires.

~~~~~~~~~~~ 

In a few months, the village heads had set up a combat training facility and course, instructed by the young adults of the village who had visited the city a few years ago for military training. Dirk and Vriska were obviously the most capable with a sword, but Roxy was by far the best teacher; Jane and Terezi had trained in non-combat utilities of battle, like emergency care and signaling. Their other friends hadn't gone to the city, but they picked up most of the others' lessons when they returned.

The village had debated for a long time whether or not to allow the younger members of the village to train for battle: the mission was, of course, to defeat the dragon which had terrorized the village for a century, any many of the adults were unwilling to let sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds join the fight. It was Jade, with her fierce speech that stunned the elders, and Dave, the younger brother of Dirk who was already more skilled in combat than any of the other adults thanks to his in-home instruction, who convinced the town to let the younger members join. Half of Karkat's mind wanted to join just because Jade was going to fight, but as soon as John told Karkat he was going to as well, the decision was made for him: he had to go, to keep his best friend out of trouble, and save his ass, if it ever came to that.

The recruits lined up on the first day of training in the brand new facility. As it turned out, there were hardly any adults who had signed up; almost everyone here was Karkat's age. The floor was hard-packed dirt, and Karkat winced as he imaged how many times he was going to hit that ground.

"Just hang out for a moment until we get you your gear, mates," said Jake. He and Roxy were going over the training plans together while other instructors walked around handing out equipment. Eridan and Feferi were carrying armfuls of wooden swords, talking to each other playfully as they thrust the sword handles at the newbies. Soon, they were in front of Karkat, and Eridan shoved a sword at him with more force than Karkat thought was necessary.

Karkat grabbed at the sword hastily so that it didn't fall and clatter on the ground and looked up to glare at Eridan. The older boy just winked and ruffled Karkat's hair with his free hand.

"Asshole," Karkat muttered, and on his left he heard John chuckle.

Once they were past, Karkat stared at the wooden weapon in his hand and gulped. This was the beginning of a new stage in his life, and he was terrified. He looked at the other people in the row to see if they also looked scared, but most of them weren't showing any expression on their faces - except Jade. She had the most determined look of anyone in the room. It looked like even the instructors had noticed, as Dirk was staring intently at her, seeming to scrutinize her worthiness. Karkat had a feeling Jade was going to be the star of the new academy in no time flat.

"Alright, munchkins," Roxy cheered. "We're going to begin. Unfortunately, we don't have enough armor to go around, but the majority of your opponents won't be able to land a half assed blow anyway, so try not to worry about that. Turn around in pairs of two to face your first opponent!"

John turned away to face his opponent, and Karkat turned to face his own: Aradia.

"Great. Now I _know_ I'm going home with bruises tonight," Karkat muttered loudly. Aradia smirked.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~

Five weeks later, and all of Karkat's predictions had been true. He'd been knocked on the painfully hard ground innumerable times, and was suffering sore muscles and brand new bruises for days after every practice. Just as predictable, Jade had proven herself as the top of the class within a handful of practices. Karkat had heard that sometimes she visited Dirk and Dave's house for extra training, even.

And today, yet again, he was being knocked to the dirt after another grueling round of one-on-one matches. He splayed his hands out to catch himself, as he'd learned to do, and ended up with a minimal number of rocks in his palms thanks to the serious calluses that had built up over time. When he looked up, he saw John's opponent, Nepeta, go down as well - much more gracefully than himself, he thought. John jumped up and cheered, training sword in hand, and a few people surrounded him with congratulations. Karkat was glad that John was doing well, but now he just about regretted joining himself. He wiped the back of his hand over his mouth and only succeeded in getting a lot of dirt on his lips. He leaned over to spit it out, and when he leaned back to get up there was a hand extended palm up in front of his face.

Raising his eyes, Karkat saw the telltale long skirt and blue blouse that he saw so often in his dreams. He had stayed after practice a few times, hiding behind the doorway, to watch Jade practice by herself. The way she beat up the stuffed hay dummies with her sword was downright magical. It was something he was sure no one would ever know about, but he was in awe of her. Too enthralled to ignore her completely, and too scared to approach her. He had thought he would be caught in a limbo forever, but today he looked up and he saw Jade's smiling face, her hair falling in front of her body, as she was leaning down to help him up. He blushed and took her hand.

"I was taking the day off," Jade said, "but I wandered down to see how things were going. Do you need some help, Karkat?"

He shrugged. "I'm getting the hang of it, I guess," he said.

She laughed softly. "Here, I'll give you some one-on-one practice time," she said, picking up a sword that had been lazily left in the dirt by some other student and getting into position for a match. When Karkat failed to respond, she pointed at his own, which was still lying on the ground.

"Oh," he said, clumsily leaning down to pick it up and almost falling again. He caught himself with a raging flush spreading over his face and got into position across from her.

She relaxed her pose and peered at his stance over the rim of her glasses. "Fix your back foot. It's angled too far, and you're going to fall," she said.

"Sorry," Karkat said as he adjusted himself.

She giggled, saying, "No, it's alright," and got into position again. "I'm going to help you out, Karkat, not beat you up. And if we have to start with footing, then that's where we'll start."

 ~~~~~~~~~~~

The list of names spilled out of Roxy's voice in equal parts pride and terror. Every person on that list was going on a trip to become either a hero or a corpse - or both.

"Dirk, Vriska, Tavros, Gamzee, and I will be leading," she read out. She looked strong, but everyone knew that she was scared to death of losing her best friends in the world. Only a few weeks ago we had witnessed her have a panic attack at the thought. Screaming on the ground in the middle of practice. That event more than anything had made their mission seem real: more real than practicing with real swords, more real than slicing dummies in half, more real than studying the anatomy and scales of a dragon. It had taken multiple long nights of shouting in Dirk's house to convince him that she was alright to go again. Looking around, Karkat realized that everyone's face bore the same expression of blanketed fear, hiding under layers and layers of bravery and strength.

"Jake, Terezi, Jane, Feferi, and Eridan will be main backup, and will be helping with emergency care."

Roxy gulped.

"The rest of you going are: Dave, Jade," - no surprise there - "PM, Aradia, Equius, Caliborn and Calliope," - the list progressed into the not-as-good fighters - "Jack, Nepeta, Sollux, and Karkat." And the list stopped short of the remaining students. Karkat had seen the order of the ranks a few days ago, and knew he was only one spot above John on the list. He sighed with relief to himself. At least he had saved John, out of everyone else.

People began to talk amongst themselves, and Roxy walked away from the students, hastily wiping the corner of her eye. Karkat turned around to see his best friend, and John's face was pale.

"I'm not going," he said quietly. Karkat didn't understand why he was upset. Lots of people here were happy, relieved that they wouldn't have to face the dragon. Karkat leaned closer and lifted his arms to give John a hug, but John pushed him back and held him at arms length, startling Karkat with his weight. His blue eyes searched Karkat's face feverishly.

"Karkat, you have to promise me you'll protect Jade," he said, almost shouting.

Karkat grinned hesitantly. "I think she'll be better at protecting me, honestly," he said.

John hiccupped a sob and he buried his face in Karkat's shoulder and began to cry.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~

Karkat walked home late at night after the party which the village had thrown for those going to fight the dragon in a week. The stars above his head twinkled as happily as the voices still in the streets laughed, drunk. He scowled and kicked the dirt in front of him. He raised his hands in front of him as if holding his sword - they had received proper swords yesterday, forged of the best metal in the area, and Karkat had no idea what to name his. He swung the invisible, unnamed sword with a loud yell, imagining it slicing up through chinks in the scales and tearing into flesh. He let his arms dropped and shuddered at the image he'd just had in his mind. As much as he tried to ignore the feeling, blood made Karkat squeamish.

"Hey there," said someone leaning against the side of a nearby house. Karkat looked up and saw Jade, wearing a plain brown dress and sandals. It was odd, Karkat thought, to see her wearing something other than her trademark blue blouse and white skirt. He supposed those must be her night clothes.

"I didn't know you were there," Karkat said shyly. He scratched his scalp.

Jade nodded, a simple enough way to recognize his embarrassment. He lowered his hand. Jade was smiling slightly in the starlight, but having grown up with her his entire life, Karkat knew that was just her resting face. Inside, she was probably having a thunderstorm of thoughts, just like everyone else going on the mission next week. "What are you thinking about?" he asked impulsively.

She exhaled loudly, and just as Karkat had guessed, her brow begin to cross with the worry she had on the inside. "If things don't turn out well," she said, "I'm going to really miss you."

"Me?" Karkat said. He laughed into the night. "I didn't know I meant that much to you." His stomach started knotting itself as he spoke.

She turned her head thoughtfully, and said, "You do."

"John is really worried about you," Karkat said. "He asked me to look out after you." He planted his feet in the ground because he felt tempted to squirm in his shoes with every word. "Even though I doubt I'll be able to keep up with you at all," he added. He hoped he hadn't sounded like he thought of her as incapable of defending herself.

Jade hung her head slightly. "I'd rather you looked out after yourself, for his sake. You're his best friend. You can be there for him. If I can't be." She shook herself, as if to get rid of the thoughts she was having. "But I've been talking to Dirk about the strategy. He's planning on using me as a hidden weapon. I'll lie low until our team has the upper hand, and then get in a big blow out of nowhere. We haven't figured out the logistics, but that's the plan that he seems to like the most."

Footsteps shuffled along the road behind Karkat, and he turned to see Dave walking toward them. "Hey, Karkat. Hey, Jade," he said in his normal collected manner.

Karkat returned the greetings as Dave walked up to Jade and slinked an arm between her and the building to give her a side hug. She put her arm around his shoulders and squeezed, grinning widely, and then Dave leaned back against the wall on his own.

"We were going to play some late night card games in here - me, John and Jade, and Rose," Dave said. "Do you want to play, too?" Karkat was surprised that he actually sounded agreeable. He had never had very much interaction with Dave, and the guy was too chilly on the outside to know him well as an acquaintance.

"I was on my way home," Karkat said.

"Ugh, none of that, bro. None of that." Dave shook his head, and walked to the door and opened it a crack. A triangle of inviting light shone on the dark street. "Come on in."

Jade was watching the exchange with a smile on her face, and impulsively, Karkat decided that he couldn't go another night without getting to see Jade smile at him like that again. "Okay, sure," he said to them both. "But you better not be setting me up or playing some dumb Egbert joke on me, got it?"

Jade giggled like a child, and suddenly Karkat realized he would have gone into the house even if there were booby traps set up in every square inch of the place. "Got it," she said.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~

The team walked up the steepest side of the mountain yet, a steep angle of ground covered in long grass, blown in all directions by the endlessly rushing wind. Karkat brought up the rear, about ten steps behind his close friends of the past week, Jade and Dave. She looked phenomenal in her chain mail skirt and with leather binding her armor to her body, shield strapped to her back. She carried her sword - Lybbestre, she named it - in a sheath on her right side, since she was left-handed. Her sword was forged specifically to balance better for her in the left hand than a typical right-handed sword would have. Karkat's own sword was forged with a ruby red gem in the hilt, and he eventually named it The Sanguine Blade, after more hours of deliberation than he would admit to anyone.

Jade stopped and leaned down with her hands on her knees. She seemed to be out of breath from the hike, but waved Dave onward while she stopped. After a few seconds, she turned around suddenly, her hair flying out behind her in the wind, and stared at the valley behind Karkat. He knew what was there: a beautiful landscape of green trees, mountains rising in every direction, and a small village nestled in the valley below their feet. It was their home, and he supposed this was Jade's last goodbye to the place she may never lay eyes on again. The sun had been directly overhead while they hiked through the forests of the lower part of the mountain, and now it was just a bit past noon and the sun was starting to head toward the horizon.

"Is it beautiful?" Karkat shouted to her with as much breath as he could get in his lungs.

"It's beautiful," she confirmed. "I'll miss it."

Karkat wheezed to a halt beside her, standing on the same line but facing the opposite direction. "You always use this language as if you're going to meet your death," he said angrily. "If you're going to have that kind of an attitude, I'll tell the entire group we have to stop to take you back to town." He turned to look at her, unsure of whether or not his words were getting through to her. "How are John and Dave and I supposed to be happy ever again without you?"

Jade sniffled and pushed tears out of her eyes with her fingertips, making it blatantly obvious to Karkat that she had been crying. She continued to stare straight ahead, and after a few moments Karkat decided not to bother her anymore. He moved ahead, exhaling heavily. A few steps later, she turned around as well. Looking over his shoulder, Karkat saw that her face was set in hard determination, and he grinned, thankful. They marched on after the rest of the group.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~

They stopped to eat soon after. No one spoke, and when they packed up to go again, the empty baskets were left on the ground for the wilderness to consume. A little more than an hour's hike later, they had reached the entrance to the dragon's lair. It was a huge wooden door, nestled about a hundred feet deep into a large cave at the top of the mountain. Etched into the wood were the words "BEWARE: DRAGON" written in dozens of languages and alphabets. Karkat recognized some of them from school, the village's single classroom from all those ages ago.

Roxy and Jake went over the plan once again, and everyone listened with their utmost attention. They had limited knowledge of the lair's interior, bought from the kingdom's spies who traveled through their land occasionally, but what they had was better than nothing. It was a large space with a high roof. The surfaces were all rock, rough in some places and smooth in others. It was too large for the dragon to completely fill with fire, although it came close. The plan was to attack immediately, from all angles, so that it had to rely on force rather than fire. Of course, some of the choice fighters were being saved as Easter eggs, to surprise the dragon when it was unsuspecting. Dave would be the first surprise, then Jade, then Vriska. And hopefully, by then, it would all be over

Karkat's job was to rush at the dragon's wings. This was one of the least important jobs, since no one knew if damaging the wings would even be a minor annoyance to the dragon, but Karkat took his job seriously. If they failed in their mission, then seriously injuring the dragon's wings could be enough to keep it cooped up here on the mountain, never to ravage their town again. That was, assuming dragon wings wouldn't heal naturally. As Jake and Roxy threw their weight into the door and it began to open, Karkat gulped his panic down and rested his hand on the hilt of The Sanguine Blade, feeling the cool gem on his palm.

Sunlight streamed into the cave, and Karkat caught his first glimpse of the dragon up close. It was as gorgeous gold as the first time he could remember ever having seen it. The smooth scales glinted light in hundreds of directions at once, putting spots of sunlight on the interior walls of the cave. The enormous beast raised its head and neck in one graceful motion five feet off the ground. It growled, the rumbling sound filling the entire cavern in the mountain. Its mouth was parted slightly, showing off an impressive array of sharp teeth and a whip-like tongue. The dragon's tail swished back and forth in agitation. As it processed the sight of the small army, equipped with swords and shields and armored from head to toe, its low rumble crescendoed into an ear-piercing bellow that spilled out of the cave's entrance and echoed from the surrounding mountains. In the middle of its imposing roar, Karkat became aware that his comrades were hollering and screaming, running with shields bared into the cave. He watched as their three hidden weapons got into place by finding tall rocks to hide behind. They leaned against the rocks, huffing from the adrenaline, straining to see and yet not be seen.

As soon as Karkat heard the first glancing of steel on scale, he was called back into action, and he unsheathed his sword and ran headlong into the cave just like everyone else. He neared the dragon and skirted around to the side, trying to find a blind spot to approach its wings. This was when he realized his first issue: the wings were attached to the back of a dragon two or three buildings taller than Karkat. As he looked around wildly for some way in hell he would be able to get to the wings, the dragon suddenly spun ninety degrees around, nearly trampling him under its feet. He ducked out of the way just in time, and with his momentum he swung an uppercut at the dragon's leg and was satisfied to feel it slide underneath the layer of scales and slice through flesh. Just as he had imagined it. He followed through, pulling his sword back, and spun until he fell into a sitting position on the ground. He breathed deeply. He had just had his first taste of combat, and there was no going back. The dragon howled with pain.

His teammates continued, to attack the dragon from all sides, some at the tail and flank, others at its side and belly. Some had managed to get onto its neck and were harassing it from above. Karkat wondered how they had managed to get there, when a flash of light caught his attention, and he spotted two rusty daggers gleaming in the sunlight, underneath the belly of the dragon. Immediately, he scrambled to his feet and put his sword in its sheath. Picking up the daggers, he ran to the dragon's opposite foot, dodging his teammates on the way, and leaped into the air. He flew at the leg with his daggers raised and somehow managed to stick the landing, his knives holding him in place above the ground. He heard the dragon bark painfully in response, and it tried to swing its leg to make him fall, but he climbed up with the daggers, up around to the outside of the leg, and then climbing up between the chinks in the scales.

The dragon growled with a nasty voice and flung its body to the side of the wall to squash him. There was no where to turn, and Karkat had no time to think, but his small frame flattened against the dragon and he jagged rock wall narrowly missed his body, injuring the dragon more than it did him. Karkat's heart pounded, and the blood was flowing through his ears so rapidly he couldn't hear the distinct sounds of the battle any longer. I have no idea what I'm doing, he thought. In his mind's eye, an image of Jade appeared before him, and he breathed deeply again, his strength renewed. He was going to fight so that she would be safe. She, and everyone. He swung himself up the last few feet, leaving the daggers impaled in the dragon's side, and landed on the back of the dragon.

As soon as he was up and was about to start swinging at the wings, he saw Dave falling from the sky somehow, preparing to throw his weight into an attack on the beast's head from the right. Karkat watched, mesmerized, as Dave's descent was matched perfectly by the dragon's right hand, its claws reaching up to snatch Dave unaware the instant before he fell upon it. Its claw pierced his shoulder, just above his heart, as it threw him backwards. He went flying, tumbling through the air, and crashed into a serrated part of the wall. His sword left his hand on impact, and broke in half against the wall from the force. From his view, Karkat could see that Dave managed not to hit his head, but he turned, immediately terrified, and saw Jade's horrified face watching from behind her hiding spot.

"Fuck," Karkat said, his heart nearly stopping as Jade stepped out from behind the rock. Her face bore the same fury Karkat had seen all those months ago, tenfold. With a paralyzing shriek, she ran to the dragon and leaped straight at its face. She had no chance of getting out of that situation alive, and Karkat's heart stopped. She sliced its eye in half, and the dragon wailed, rearing on its hind legs. Karkat slipped off its side, and in midair, he saw the dragon's claw hit Jade full on and knock her back, straight into the ground where she drove into the ground for a few seconds before coming to a halt. She was still clinging to her sword with her shield fallen behind her. Her helmet had been knocked off. Karkat willed her to rise, but after a few seconds, he realized that she wasn't moving. The dragon roared again, deafening all inside, and smoke rose out of its nostrils as its embers came to life.

All at once, the life blood flowed back into Karkat's limbs, and he sprang into a full sprint toward Jade. He passed the head of the dragon as it was preparing its fiery blow. He had watched it attack the town a few times, and he knew what it would be like: a long, hot stream of fire propelled in one direction, at one target. If he could get there in time, though, that target would not be Jade.

He showed up five feet in front of her, and swung around to face the dragon. He opened his mouth and shouted at it hatefully, and then realized that he had left his shield on the ground when he climbed to the top of the dragon's back. Terror seized him as he realized that he was going to die. The faces of his friends swam in front of his eyes, until he realized that it was actually tears. Hot, stinging tears. The dragon leaned back to fire, and no one was near enough to him and Jade to help, or near enough to the dragon's weak spots to distract it. Dirk and Roxy were rushing and hacking it, but it wasn't enough to deter the dragon's will.

"Karkat!" Jade cried from behind him, and he turned his face to see her reaching up to him, horror splayed across her face. He was reminded of the time in practice when he was the one reaching up to her from the ground. And all at once, the dragon released its breath, and he turned to face the fire as Jade found her feet. She sprang up behind him, put her sword arm around him tightly, and hoisted her shield to protect them both, and the fire hit the shield in a direct line of fire and splashed around them like rain on a roof.

His brain ceased working. There was no breath in his lungs. Jade was clinging to him, chest heaving with terrified breaths. The shield before them was their sanctuary. He was ... still alive. He and Jade were both still alive. He squeezed his eyes shut in never-ending thanks and raised his head and smiled.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~

The adrenaline kept him from thinking clearly afterwards, but apparently his natural instincts were thinking clearly enough. Together, as one, Jade and he attacked the dragon, rushing at it one at a time, beating it back with incalculable rage and deadly precision. The others were unable to assist, because they didn't want to break the streak that was happening. They watched, an awed audience, and the monster was taken down with two swords. When Karkat jumped at the dragon and landed a great blow to the second eye, the dragon reared back yet again, baring its chest and spreading the scales a little. Just enough that Jade could step forward and pierce its heart with her sword, and suddenly the dragon toppled over, and the fearsome creature was defeated.

He regained his normal mode of thought several minutes later, when he and Jade were kneeling on the hard ground, facing one another. The sun was setting, and it cast a lovely crimson glow around the cave. Near the entrance, the rest of the party was cheering still and greeting one another with relief and victory in their eyes. Karkat and Jade slowly stopped panting so hard, and the angry red cloud eventually dissipated from his mind.

Karkat looked up at Jade and smiled. "Did we really do that?"

She met his eyes and smiled back at him. "I can't believe it either, Karkat. We were amazing." Jade shifted her weight so she could raise one hand, and she placed it on Karkat's cheek. When her cool skin met his face, he exhaled deeply and looked into her eyes.

Seemingly without a second thought, she kissed him.

 


End file.
